High-throughput optical instrument detecting absorbance, fluorescence, luminescence, TR-FRET, and BRET across 96- to 1536-well microtiter plates.
Specifications & Metrics
measures
Optical absorbance (OD), fluorescence intensity, fluorescence polarization, luminescence, and FRET/BRET
Core Principles & Analysis
Microplate readers assay biological and chemical reactions in standardized 96-well (100–200 μL/well), 384-well, or 1536-well (5–50 μL/well) microtiter plates using monochromators or optical filter cubes paired with photomultiplier tubes or CCD cameras.
Multimode plate readers combine UV-Vis absorbance (for ELISA and MTT assays), fluorescence intensity and polarization, time-resolved FRET (TR-FRET/HTRF), and glow/flash luminescence (for luciferase reporter and BRET GPCR screens) in a single chassis.
High-speed fluorometric imaging plate readers (FLIPR) integrate multi-channel pipettors with Simultaneous whole-plate camera optics to capture sub-second intracellular calcium or membrane-potential transients across 384 or 1536 wells.